Plastic is a popular packaging material but poses major environmental challenges related to waste, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce pollution and emissions, it is necessary to find alternative packaging materials to reduce the use of plastic.
Norwegian agriculture produces large amounts of rest raw materials (agriwaste), but much of this ends up being discarded or used in low-value products like compost. Some of these raw materials may have properties making them suitable as ingredients in alternative packaging materials.
To explore this, the project will map the types, quantities, and availability of rest raw materials from Norwegian agriculture. Furthermore, the potential of these raw materials for use as packaging materials will be assessed, along with various production technologies that can be adapted to Norwegian agriculture. The project is a collaboration between three SINTEF institutes (Ocean, Manufacturing, and Industry), together representing expertise in food science, rest raw materials, packaging design, and biomaterials for packaging.
Funding
The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Funds for Agriculture and Food Industry (FFL/JA) and represents an important step toward a circular economy, where rest raw materials become valuable resources. This could lay the foundation for a new industry that both reduces the use of plastic and promotes value creation in Norwegian agriculture.
